Lord Palatine
by Oldfart
Summary: Yet another Xander road trip. Looks like I'm stuck on a theme.


**Lord Palatine**

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer or those of the Forever Knight and Harry Potter universes or any other Universe that I may borrow from, those belong to other People with High priced Lawyers. The concepts involved in these separate television shows or Movies or other fan fiction do not belong to me either. The story I have written however does. This story may not be posted on any pay site or in any way shape or form, make any profit for anyone (I know I'm not making a thing from it)

**  
Chapter One**

**Tuesday June 1 1999 6am**

Xander stood in his bathroom in his motel room in Oxnard looking in a mirror and not seeing his reflection, he had had a crappy 24 hours, Xander had left Sunnydale around ten yesterday morning to start his road trip, two hours latter just as he was entering Oxnard his engine in his car fell out, literally, after that he spent another three hours finding a garage that would work on it and another four hours walking around town trying to find a cheap motel to stay at and the only job he could find was as a dish washer at a woman's strip club and they were closed until Wednesday night and it was Monday. By the time he had got done talking to the manager of the club it was dark and he hadn't had anything to eat since he had left home that morning. Xander's luck stayed the same, bad, just as he was passing an alley on his way to a diner across the street somebody hit him on the head and mugged him for the ten dollars in his wallet and as he was starting to get back up he was attacked by a vamp and down he went again, he didn't have a chance.

As a very upset Xander looked in the mirror realizing that he had become the thing that he feared and hated the most, a vampire only not as he thought it would happen, he was still Xander, not a demon possessing Xander's body. He remembered the vamp grabbing him and the horrible pain as he was drained and as he was nearly dead and out of it feeling a salty liquid in his mouth and the animal in him sucking for all he was worth in an attempt to survive and he has a faint memory of the vampire turning to dust because he had taken to much and his dream of the very powerful blood demon entering his body and changing it making it stronger and faster and more durable, and when it was done and got ready to evict Xander's soul, now the Hyena Primal spirit had been released from its cage in his subconscious and caught the demon by surprise and over powered it, giving its life to save Xander by binding and lobotomizing the demon, and in the process altering the demonic energies that keep a Vampire "alive". The demon had been an ancient one and Xander had its knowledge and he now had all of Soldierboy's memories as well. He had a symbolic relation with the demon now, it was no longer sentient, its only instinct it had now was to survival and to survive, its host had to survive and as long as it was fed it would sleep, it was nothing but a mindless beast now. Soldierboy it turned out had been an Uncle he never knew he had and he had his uncle memories all the way up to the day he had died, three days ago in L.A. His uncle had been in Viet Nam back in 72 when he had taken over Xander's body that Halloween, it had opened his eyes and he had on his off duty time been killing Vamps and demons, After his time in the army he had become a cop in L.A. and had died in a shoot out. He had never got along with his Family after Nam and he some how knew that Xander was going to be in Oxnard that week and had set up a storage unit with some stuff in it for Xander, he was going to take some Vacation time and spend it with Xander and get to know him.

Xander was thanking God for several things as he remembered, the first thing was that there had been nobody near that alley when he had woken at up at 5 in the morning with that raging hunger, the second thing was the people who had let their poor Great Dane run loose at night, it had gave its life to save who ever would have come across his path, and the third and final thing was the fact that the crucifix around his neck was just giving him a warm pleasant feeling instead of burning him.

From the demon's Knowledge Xander now knew why a vampires clothes caught fire in the sun, instead of protecting them and it was the same reason when a Vampire was staked, its clothes and what ever was in its pockets went up as ash with the vamp. The demonic energies that powered a vamp extended about and inch from its skin and when that energy was disrupted, stake through the heart, decapitation, fire and ultraviolet radiation, it disrupted whatever it surrounded. With Xander the alteration of the energies had make them more neutral, the energy wasn't so much "black" or demonic any more nor was it "white" or "Good" ether which is why blessed or holy objects didn't burn him and as for the not seeing him in the mirror, it is a form of a cloak or invisibility, it ties into their ability to blend in with the shadows at night, it was how they stalked their prey with out them knowing until it is to late, its easier to sneak up on your prey if they can't see you in a reflection.

Using a simple incantation that the demon knew Xander was able to be seen in the mirror. By this time the sun was up so he tested his resistance to the sun and found that he still burned but because the demon had been so old he could withstand the sunlight for about five minutes before he started to smoke, which would allow him to move from shadow to shadow at a walk instead of a panicked dead run if they were close enough, during the day, giving him a limited form of freedom during the day.

After his tests a mentally exhausted Xander made sure his do not disturb sign was out and his curtains were closed and he went to bed. Xander woke up around Five in the afternoon, after checking in the yellow pages on where the butcher shops and vet clinics were, Xander decided to see how close to the Storage units he could get before he ran out of shadows to protect him from the sun, much to his surprise he was able to go all of the way without being in the sun to long.

In the storage unit was a black 97 Lexus GS 300 with tinted windows. According to Xander's uncles memories he had acquired the car from a Lawyer who worked for Wolfram and Heart, who happened to be a vamp, it seems that Xander's uncle had acquired quit allot of his wealth from the Vampires he had taken out, ether from their person or from the real-estate that they had owned and with a Lawyer friend he had the titles transferred to his name all nice and legal. In the trunk of the car was a vamp, demon hunting kit and a small portable fridge and a brief case full of cash and the tint on the windows allowed a vamp to drive around during the day. Xander took the car and closed up the unit, his uncle had paid for the unit for a full year, after stopping to get his stuff from the motel and checking out he let the club know that he didn't need the job and stopping and letting the garage know to fix his car and paid half up front, Xander left for L.A.

**Chapter Two**

An hour latter Xander pulled up to a demon bar that Xander's uncle knew about and was friends with the owner, Caracas, here he hoped to get some blood and some info about the investigation into his uncles death. The memories of his uncle's death from his uncle just didn't feel right.

As Xander wandered into the club he was getting some confused looks from the more sensitive cliental, Xander had a slight smirk as he thought about the mixed signals he was sending, he looked up at the mirror behind the bar and saw his reflection he realized he had forgot to stop the spell that allowed vamps to have a reflection /OOPS/, when some of the other beings in the club saw that, there was some more confusion in the club.

Lorne was talking to a demon who had just butchered a song on what he had seen, when he noticed a vamp enter his club and he watched the confusion he created, the face said he was 19 but the eyes said he was decades older and had a soul, his aura said he was a fledgling but he had the power and presents of a thousand year old master vampire and to top of the confusion he had a reflection and from his slight smirk knew he was casing a sensation as he ordered the house special (Blood), Lorne just had to talk to him.

"Hey baby face welcome to my club I'm the host here and my name is Lorne."

"That wouldn't happen to be Lorne Greene would it?"

"You know sweet cheeks very few people catch that now days, so what brings you to my club?"

Xander lifted his glass, "Hunger and I'm looking for some info on the death of my Uncle, Jason Harris."

After Lorne gave his condolences and told him that the word on the street was that the as far as the demon and the drug and mob worlds were concerned the shooting had gone done as the police had said, Jason had died to saving the EMTs from a nut case who was in a hostage situation gone bad and Lorne had agreed with Xander was that the only weird part about the whole situation had been the fact that the "Nut Case" had been a respected member of society, by the name of Roger Bond, who was know to practically wear a three piece suit to bed and was heavily connected to the west coast mob and wouldn't do anything to ruin his reputation for anything, but here he had died in a shoot out with an off duty cop in a hostage situation wearing a dirty wife beater tank and dirty sweats pants with a weeks growth of a beard, holding a 5 year old kid as a hostage and nobody knew why and on top of that the guy had said before he died to Jason was "the dark lord sends his regards Lieutenant". After getting a couple pints of blood and turned down singing for Lorne and Xander left he had a big day tomorrow. Before going to bed Xander called Giles and talked to him to let the scoobies know he was in L.A. and was fine and what he had found out about his uncle and if Giles had heard about somebody calling himself the dark lord, the only person that Giles knew who went by the name of the dark lord had been some so called wizard who called himself Lord Voldamort and had been causing trouble 15 years ago but he was supposed to be dead, but Giles would look into it.

Xander had gotten up around noon the next day and had gone to the Police department to talk to a detective Kate Lockley who was on the case and he got the same story as he had gotten from Lorne the case was closed on his uncle's death, as for the shooter that was open. From his uncle's memories he knew Kate was a pit bull on her cases and he did a very Jason thing just to get her stirred up a little, he told her as a gee wiz fact that he had heard from a friend of his that a nut case in England 15 years ago called himself The Dark Lord or Lord Voldamort and their had been quit a few weird deaths around him and that he was supposed to be dead but they never found a body. As he was leaving he had looked back and saw she was already on the phone and he thought to himself / and she off and running/ His uncle had been very good at manipulating people. The next person he saw was his uncle's lawyer and he was surprised to find out that he was his uncles sole heir, he got everything, while he was sitting in shock one of his uncle's memories surfaced, one of his uncle's friends was a woman who claimed to be physic and she was the one who had talked him it arranging the storage unit in Oxnard and to have his funeral at night, she had also had given him some of his best tips in his work both on and off duty.

Over the next couple of days Xander found out that he really needed to think about a thing before he could access his uncle's memories and the demons knowledge about stuff and at times a smell or a word would give him a "flashback", for example; when he had mentioned the name of Voldimort at Lorne's club he would up in the middle of a club wide discussion about the Wizard world and their history and Tom Riddle aka Voldimort and his dream of a Muggle free world or at the very lest him as the Emperor of the world, and when he told Giles about what he had heard Giles came clean on the fact that he was a wizard and had gone to Hogwarts and because of his association with Ethan had got booted out and his wand broken so Giles filled him in on some of the stuff about the wizard world that the demons didn't know like the fact that the American Version of the wizard world had more interaction with the Muggle world that the rest of the other countries did, making them in a way more balanced in magic and less isolationists. The next day when he sat down and thought about what he had learned the demons knowledge on magic started to surface and he saw how the different schools of magic worked and how they were started. He saw how the magic users were divided into two groups, the natural born who had an internal source of power that they used to power there magic like the Wizards, the Charmed ones, as well as Willow and Giles, and the Practitioners who tap an outside source of power like the nature, a god, or demon, like Ethan, most Wicca, Mages and Sorcerers ect. That's when Xander realized with his knowledge he could do magic and all of the other times that magic had gone wrong around him he wasn't the one who had done the magic but somebody else had done it. By thinking on his new knowledge of magic he saw how they did it by using Latin phrases and rhymes to focus their minds on what they wanted the magic to do. Xander also got a "flashback" from the demons memories on the magic that Dracula used to shapshift into a wolf and mist, the wolf thing was actually a form of Wizard animagus magic and the mist thing wasn't shapeshifting but actually shifting into and alternate dimension where he was invisible and intangible allowing him to escape and run away from danger. Xander spent several hours experimenting with his new abilities, the turning into a black wolf took very little power and was in a way relaxing but the mist thing it used to much and was draining but it was informative, when he is in the "mist" state he could walk through walls and could move with blinding speed and could also in this dimension levitate but it took energy to do it and his source of power was his demon so he went through two pints of blood that day recharging his demon. He also found that he was good at creating charms; glamour's and seeing the fabric of a spell, charm or ward and by pass them.

Using his new computer skills he had inherited from his uncle Xander found out that Mr. Bond had ingested some sort of strange herbal brew before he had freaked out and after talked to Giles found out it was a Black arts potion that was known to the wizard community as the puppet potion, it puts the drinker under the power of the person who gave it to him, and according to the demon community 15 years ago inspector Jason Harris and civilian Roger Bond had stopped a Deatheater by the name of Thomas Black, A distant cousin of Serious Black, from killing a bunch of people at a baseball game, sending him to prison and Thomas has swore revenge against Jason and Roger. According to the prison records, Thomas was released from prison on parole a month ago and had promptly disappeared and according to the demon grapevine he had reopened his shop on the darkside of the wizard enclave in L.A. a week after he had disappeared. That's when Xander got an idea on stirring up the wizard world by creating an alternate personality for himself after he had several discussions with Giles and several demons at Lorne's club who thought that the chaos that Xander was going to create might be fun to watch, at a safe distance, that's how the old assassin Lord Palatine was born.

Xander used a Glamour to look like his 70 year old Grandfather on his fathers side and added a scar over the left eye and made that eye a light blue color while the right was his normal brown and with some dark clothes from his uncle's closet and a tarakan ring that his uncle had found several years ago, then he added several shield charms on the crucifix that he wore to protect him from curses especially the Cruciatus and Imperius Curses he really didn't have to worry about the Avada Kedavra curse since he was technically dead anyway, then he added tattoos circling his neck the tattoos were several glyphs repeated several times acting as a barrier preventing a vampire from biting him, Xander practiced the glamour until he could bring it up or drop it with a thought.

**Chapter Three**

It had been a week to the day when Xander put his plans into action, he went to the warehouse that his uncle used to store several cars that he used to hide his Vigilante actions from his fellow cops, and used an 1979 Cadillac with the personal plates KILLER on it as his ride for his mission to the Wizard enclave. Xander parked in front of the magic store that was one of the entrances to the enclave, checked his mirror to make sure he had his Glamour on and then walked into the shop radiating pure predatory vibes making the customer in the store very nervous and they got out of his way in a hurry or just left the store at a run. He walked into the back room and looked at the back wall and saw the charm pattern for the door way into the enclave and saw a wizard needed to tap the area in a curtain pattern to open it. Xander could feel the shop owner watching him, so he made a sweeping motion with his hand and hit the wall with a kinetic blast blowing a hole in the wall, Xander had drank an extra glass of blood that morning to make sure he had the energy to do what he was going to do today in the enclave. After he had walk thru the hole he made his way to the bad side of town and his appointment with Mr. Black.

Xander looked directly into several cameras as he walked down the street so that they got a good picture of him, it didn't take to long for him to find Blacks shop and he could see that Mr. Black was in, show time.

Xander walked into the shop just radiating Bad Ass, as Xander wandered through the shop towards the back were Black was, pretending to find the merchandise as crap, Xander saw that there was a young woman in the back who was pretending to look at some crystals, she just screamed cop to him, Xander had been wondering how he was going to get an auror to the shop to witness his actions against Black. When Thomas Black came to ask if he could help him Xander went into his act, looking at black with dead eyes and a sharks grim said.

"Ah Mr. Black the corps that I have been looking for, you've been a naughty boy getting my friend Roger Bond killed like you did by using that damned potion of yours!"

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the woman talk into a pendant as Black turn pale after he saw the ring and Xander continued as Black started to back away from him.

"You know what I find so interesting about you Wizards is that you really don't know that much about magic. You believe that if somebody can't use a little stick to do magic that they are beneath you so you call them Squibs if they are born into a wizard family or a muggle if they are from out side your world." At this Xander opened his hand that he had a crystal from the shelve in and with out a wave of his had or a word made it rise into the air above his hand and fly back to the spot on the shelf he had taken it from both Black's and the woman's eyes widened at that. "Now take me for example I'm what you would call a muggle and if I had been born a wizard a squib yet I just did a small bit of magic without wiggling a stick and saying a bit of Latin at that bit of rock and you find that amazing, hell I know of a Wizard who had his wand broken over twenty years ago and he can do better magic than me on a bad day all because he actually took the time to really learn about magic in its many forms and I know of muggles that can do magic that makes what you do, look amateurish and lets not talk about what muggle science can do, but I digress, I came here to have a little talk with you Mr. Black, you should have stayed in that muggle prison you were safe there." With a wave of his hand Black went flying into the back wall and was pinned there as Xander walked up to him ignoring the auror who now had her wand out and pointing at him, and Black didn't disappoint him and in his fear fired off the killing curse at Xander, right in front of the auror and both were surprised that Xander kept coming, " you know you just screwed yourself Black the lady there is an auror and you just did an unforgivable right in front of her and just so you know you can't kill something that's already dead." With the auror listening and forgetting she had her wand as Xander questioned black using his vamp whammy.

"Are you Thomas Black a Deatheater?"

"Yes"

"Do you know who else are deatheater and were the auror can get the proof they need against these people?"

"Yes"

"Will you answerer their questions truthfully"

"Yes Master"

Xander saw that the woman had unconsciously been holding a crystal out to record everything being said.

So on a hunch and going on something that Giles had told him he asked a couple more questions before he left he was just about out of power and the demon was getting restless.

"Is Cornelius Fudge the British Minister of magic a Deatheater?"

"No just an easily manipulated Idiot, who is more interested in keeping his job and the power with it than actually doing his job," Xander eyebrow rose at that, it seemed that Black really didn't like fudge.

"Did you cousin Sirius kill those people"

"No"

"Who did "

"Pettigrew did, to fake his death and frame Sirius, because Sirius had found out that Pettigrew had been a deatheater all along and had been the Potter's secret keeper and had betrayed them."

"Did Voldimort die 15 years ago?"

"No, he was severely injured and it took him nearly all of this time to regain his power."

That's when the another aurors showed up, which Xander thanked god for, because he was just about drained and all he had left was enough power to get the hell out of there. Xander released Black and went mist on the aurors and shot back to his car and once there got back in phase with the world, drove back to the warehouse, dropped the glamour and sat in the car until his body stopped shaking from the stress he had been under. Once he had his body under control he made sure that the warehouse was lock up tight and the alarm was set, he had a drink and passed out on the cot in the back office, that's when Xander decided to resume his road trip, it was time to get out of L.A.

**Chapter Four**

Over the next couple of weeks Xander played tourist, driving across the U.S. in his Lexus he hit Vegas the grand canyon, drove through Utah, Colorado on his way to Chicago and down to New Orleans and across to Miami. During this time Xander killed the odd vamp or demon that crossed his path and raided a few nests as well. On the small nests he hit them as himself, but the big one that he hit he went as Palatine just in case there were survivors that might escape and spread the word about the hunter.

During his stay in a motel in Vegas Xander had been watching an X-man cartoon rerun and when he saw Gambit throwing the cards and them blowing up on contact, Xander got a Flashback from his demon memories, about a mage who 3000 years ago claimed to have the ability to throw lightening bolts like Zeus, what he did was magically charge up an object, in his case rocks and when he threw them and they hit something it would blow up, so he bought several packs of playing cards and when he was in a secluded spot one night in Utah he saw just how close he could imitate Gambit.

Much to his amazement he found that the mage had been doing it, the hard way by strictly using magic, Xander found a way to do it with very little magic. He found that all he needed the magic to do was alter the molecular bonds in the object making it unstable and the object would detonate like nitro when hit, he almost lost a hand the first time he tried it. This started Xander into thinking about calling himself the X-Man and getting a super hero suit, he already could do a good imitation of Wolverine with the vamp senses and healing and Jean Gray with his levitation trick and Kitty Pride with his mist thing now he could do a Gambit thing as well. That's how that old hunter Palatine started throwing exploding cards at the bad guys, and the first place he tried it was in a demon biker bar in New Orleans.

When Xander was in Miami he found that the demons were looking at him strange when he visited their bars to get a drink and that it seemed he was the only Vampire in the bars at the time that's when he found out about the other Vampires, the souled ones and the other demon vamps. Over the next week he checked out the Vampire bars and clubs in the city and as a fledgling and the fact that he was respectful of his elders and the city elder liked him they answered his questions on the different vamps their histories, abilities and the rules they live by. The Kindred and all of the clans plus the Corvenus Vampires who had made an alliance with the kindred two hundred years ago becoming one of their clans, the Night flyers (the Forever Knight type) and the other (the Blade type) demon vampires. The Vampire also told him of the different hunters out there, their names and what they looked like, Blade, Jack Crow and his crew, Derek and Zoey Bliss and their crew, the slayer(s), Palatine (Xander had a hard time to keep from giving himself away, if they only knew), and the Hellsing group and their main enforcer Alucard a 565 year old vampire of an unknown breed, possibly from one of the Sabbat or neutral Kindred clans, this is believed because of his shape shifting abilities. They also told him that besides Alucard, Blade, Derek and Zoey Bliss and maybe Palatine were all some kind of Vampire and all had some sort of ability to walk in the sun earning them the title daywalkers. Blade was a Damphire, Derek and Zoey were using an experimental antiAIDS drug to hold off becoming full blown (Blade type) demon vampires and as for Palatine it was just speculation there. But, there is always a but, there was an even more dangerous hunter out there, a woman who has been fighting demons and vampire for ten millennia she had been the daughter of one of the Atlantian's greatest scientists Methuselah, he was the one who had created the kindred, he had created the serum but his lad assistant Cain drank it and the both night flier breeds, as a way to fight the demon breeds.

She was born Rhea who according to the myths was one of the first Slayers, she tried to stop the invasion of the demons call the Goa'uld, who pretended to be Gods and they had sank Atlantis (the one build when the Ancients had left the Pegasus galaxy) and when she lost, enslaved the world. She was possessed by a Goa'uld and became the wife of the "God" Cronus, legend among the kindred says that eventually, around 5000 years, the slayer spirit and the soul of Rhea had finally over come the Goa'uld within her and she lead a revolt against Ra and made him leave the world and for getting the Goa'uld to leave a priest by the name of Imhotep blessed Rhea, the blessing was to make her invulnerable to demons and vampires and to prevent her from being possessed again, of course this had pissed of the followers of Ra so they thought of an appropriate punishment for her, they cursed her with immortality.

Actually the curse really didn't have to do much to make her immortal, Rhea was a Slayer to begin with, if it wasn't for the demons and vampire and such killing the slayers so young a slayer would have a life span of around 400 years, the enhanced immune system and healing factor of a slayer slows the aging process by a factor of three, then add the fact that she, at the age of 15 was, forcefully blended with a Goa'uld, which also enhance the immune system and healing factor increasing the life span of a human by a factor of three as well, meaning that without a sarcophagus Rea with the Goa'uld could have had a life span together of around 1200 years. When Rea's soul and the slayer spirit had overcome the Goa'uld, they didn't kill the symbiot, they destroyed its mind, making Rhea the dominate personality and should for any reason the symbiot leave her body it would take her mind with it. What the curse did was enhance her healing factor up to the level of a Lycan's or highlander type immortal and stopped her ageing.

As the millennia passed she had been every thing from a slave to a queen and has gone by many names, Rhea, Nefertari, Andromache (an Amazon queen who supposedly fought Hercules), Gabriel (companion to Xena)Aoife (a female warrior from Britannia), Olga, widow of Igor of Russia (another Amazon from around the mid 900's AD), Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, Eleanor of Castile, as Countess of Ross, she led her own troops during William Wallace and Andrew de Moray's battles with the English, Lady Agnes Randolph, Isabella of Lorraine, Grace O'Malley (a pirate), Mary Frith (a highwayman in England), as Prudence Wright led a troop of women who defended the town of Pepperell Massachusetts against the British, Dr "James" Barry did a degree at Edinburgh Medical School. She joined the British Army in 1813, Elizabeth Hunter the longest living Slayer on record, Ella Hattan, also known as the "Queen of the Sword," fought competitions with knife, rapier, foil, saber and broad sword in the United States between 1884 and 1900, as Edith Garrud she opened a dojo for jujutsu close to Oxford Circus. She trained a group of "fighting suffragettes", the bodyguard unit for Mrs. Pankhurst, as Nancy Harkness Love she helped found the WASPs during WW2, and she was going by the name Elza Winters in 1985 as a CIA agent when she disappeared in Eastern Europe.

Xander didn't know whether to be mad, surprised or cry as the Vamp telling the stories of the most feared hunter (it was this fear of her that caused the souled vampires to create their communities and the rules that they lived by just to keep her from noticing them) laid the pictures they had of her ranging from pictures of Roman, Greek and Egyptian marble busts to portraits from all over Europe, to old newspaper articles, the vamp was smirking because he knew where Xander had grown up and who he had hung out with.

All of the picture showed the same young looking woman, a woman he knew, Buffy.


End file.
